São Paulo – One day after Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff attended the 2013-2014 harvest opening ceremony, amidst expectations of an all-time high output, and following the government’s announcement that agribusiness Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be up 4% this year, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture has announced this Wednesday (12th) that agriculture and livestock exports were down 10.8% January-on-January, to US$ 5.87 billion.
According to the ministry, the products that contributed to the decline the most were maize, whose exports revenues were down 39.5%, and sugar/ethanol, down 26.6%. Exports of forest products and soy bean, bran and oil increased, on the other hand.
In absolute value, exports were topped by meats, at US$ 1.27 billion, a figure similar to that of January 2013, according to the ministry. Beef export revenues increased, while those of pork and poultry dropped.
Meats were followed by sugar and ethanol, forest products, grain, flours and their products, and soy bean, bran and oil.
Agribusiness product imports remained nearly level with January last year, at US$ 1.463 billion. As a result, the agribusiness trade surplus was down 14% to US$ 4.41 billion in January. According to the ministry, the most imported products were wheat, fisheries, and pulp and paper.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
